"Turkey is becoming an empire of fear"

Police detained more suspects Thursday in a new wave of arrests connected with an alleged secularist plot to bring down the Islamic-rooted government of Turkey, a prosecutor said.

The detentions followed police raids on about 30 locations across Turkey, said Turan Colakkadi, a deputy chief prosecutor for Istanbul. The state-run Anatolia news agency said the headquarters of a secularist metal workers' trade union and an opposition television station were raided.

Colakkadi would not say how many people were detained in the raids, which threaten to aggravate tensions between secularists and Islamists. Anatolia and other news reports said dozens were taken into custody.

"At the moment, searches are taking place in more than 30 places in various provinces. There could be more detentions according to documents or evidence found. That is why I cannot give a figure," he said.

Many see the investigation into the alleged plot as the latest battle between the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and secularists who are backed by the military and the judiciary and who consider themselves the protectors of Turkey's secular system. (...)